90% aspies have normal intelligence despite what they think

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I was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome at age 13 despite having had a delay in the acquisition of speech and aberrant speech and language development.

Interesting. According to this study, intratest scatter was historically considered a sign of a schizophrenia spectrum disorder, or a vulnerability thereto:



http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20639690

I think that when it comes to certain forms of autism spectrum disorder, there are some major conceptual issues vis-a-vis the schizophrenia spectrum.

EDIT: Made link more permanent.

Last edited by beneficii on 16 Mar 2014, 5:25 am, edited 1 time in total.

I have always scored above-average in IQ tests, usually in a 105-130 range, but I don't trust IQ tests much because there are people who score low on it but are very talented and intelligent.
People think that I either am very intelligent or very stupid usually, and after having known me for a while they tell me that I am very intelligent but look stupid.
What defines intelligence ayway?
I have a very good long-term memory but an awful short-term memory. I am very disorganized and can't make I plan I am going to follow to save my life. My inability to follow a plan and get organized has been a downside but also had a good side, meaning that I noticed that people who get very organized get blocked when their plan can't follow through for any reason, while I don't have this problem because I have no plan, and I do what my intuition suggests me when I have to act.
I see myself as a person with an excellent intuition and a good long-term memory rather than an intelligent one.

Schizophrenia is also associated with intraindividual variability over time:

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Ad ... ne.0078354

For more info on intraindividual variability (such as that it also occurs in dementia and ADHD):

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3771365/

I've had various IQ tests where I've scored highly, my English language skills are above average and I remember addresses, dates and middle names very well. However, I never did very well in school, I don't have any ability to 'think outside of the box' and I lack common sense. I could slap an Aspie answer on two of those aforementioned weaknesses: I can only focus on what I like and that my thinking skills can be very rigid. But is the truth really just that I have no focus and that I can't be bothered with trial and error? I'm not self aware enough to answer that question.

Are they talking about catatonic, hebephrenic, paranoid schizophrenia or drug induced psychosis?

I had to address this ...

Answer: No. To relate autism with IQ I think one needs to analyze autistic traits, and address how they apply to IQ. I will do one here below ...

1. Autistics have a visual, and cognitive reporting inclination to prefer detail over the "bigger picture".

- This is called, "local processing over global processing".
- Dr. Grandin states this in most of her speeches.
- We have an inclination to see the detail in things, and in our minds focus on the details of things, so both visual and cognitive detail inclination.

A. I will point out that it is not considered a deficit; it is inclination. see, http://web.mit.edu/bcs/nklab/media/pdfs ... DD2013.pdf

Quoted: "We find that although children with autism showed a reduced preference to report global properties of a stimulus when given a choice, their ability to process global properties when instructed to do so is unimpaired. These findings support prior claims that people with ASD show a disinclination, not a disability, in global processing, and highlight the broader question of whether other characteristics of autism may also reflect disinclinations rather than disabilities".

B. However, conceivably, an autistic person could be so inclined on the details, and disinclined on the "big picture" that the person has a "advantage/disadvantage" cognitive functioning per a stimuli i.e., ( when inclination for details matters, then, perhaps, sometimes the autistic person is seen by others as a genius for "focusing on the details" and when the "big picture" matters, then, perhaps, that person is called "dense" or "lacks common sense" for focusing on the details).

Thus, we would expect the IQ assessment would vary per the type of testing stimuli. We would expect on average, for autistics to crush "NT people" in IQ assessments involving detail analysis.

Last edited by LoveNotHate on 16 Mar 2014, 7:58 am, edited 1 time in total.

There's more to it than just the Dunning-Krueger effect.

Most people think they are above average in most ways. It isn't just an inability to judge their failing due to lack of knowledge about a subject, though that does affect people too. People tend to overestimate themselves in other areas too. For example, most people think they are more attractive than average (about a third of people under 30 rate themselves as a 9/10!). People also think they are less likely to get cancer than they really are, even if they are told how likely they are to get cancer! 80% of American parents acknowledge childhood obesity as a growing problem, but 84% think their children are a healthy weight (in reality, about a third of American children are obese).

Additionally, people tend to value the things they are good at more highly than the things they are not so good at. The degree to which people value perfectionism, for example, strong correlates with the degree to which they consider themselves perfectionists.

About 80% of people are totally biased towards themselves. The other 20% often have self-esteem issues, and depression.

(There have been a lot of interesting books written on this subject lately. Daniel Kahnemann's Thinking, Fast And Slow is the definitive one, but I feel David McRaney's You Are Not So Smart and You Can Beat Your Brain are more accessible without slacking on the facts)

The Walrus,

I really enjoyed Thinking Fast, Thinking Slow.

Exactly.

As I mentioned elsewhere, I paid $215.00 to learn my overall IQ score was "inconclusive" based on the sub-test score scatter.

I tell people I'm just a really dumb smart person.

I'm not bothered by the fact that my intelligence is average. WP needs a Mick or a Sid. :O)

I actually came to this realization quite some time ago, though it wasn't just me that thought I was extra smart family and some teachers said that a lot to so they where dissappointed when I got average or sometimes low grades because they thought I could do better. In reality I think it is certainly more a case of good long term memory, and being able to go on about topics that most people don't know much about causing the appearance of above average intelligence. But yeah as far as I know my intelligence is average nothing special there, it doesn't bother me.

Schizophrenia in general. The subtypes of schizophrenia, be they catatonic, disorganized, or paranoid, are increasingly seen as not holding the validity they had in the past, so it's just schizophrenia they're talking about.

I've met a whole lot of aspie people and been to quite a few aspie functions, though it eventually got kind of boring, and most if not all of the people I met are definitely smarter then the average person. This was very wonderful to me, especially in the beginning. In a discussion the many people I met can in general make connections and see new ways to correlate and put ideas together much faster then the average person. It was really interesting, plus I know quite a few aspies in my daily life, apart from attending these aspie functions, and they are much smarter, too, but with certain limitations due to their aspieness. (Some of the handful of other aspies I know quite well, not from the functions I attended but from other areas of my life, are very psychologically messed up). However, this does not really mean any of these smart aspeies from wherever I know and have met are really much more intelligent than the average person. They may have the capacity to process data more comprehensively because they are so smart, but many do not learn to do it and get stuck in these special interests.

The thing that has helped me personally is that for many many years, starting at a young age, my special interest was and is to learn to process data more comprehensively. That kind of special interest can take a person a lot further than some other kinds of special interests.

Imo doing well at school or on an IQ test does not necessarily indicate a person is not smart or intelligent. A person may just not like that kind of test or whatever...

Some of the comments from people in WP and the way they are able to integrate data and speak so eloquently is really amazing to me, except imo a lot of other people here, though they may be smart, are kind of stuck in a rut in terms of stereotypical thinking..That can happen with any kind of person, though.

People who speak fluently on topics probably seem smart to others.

In lit, tests of verbal fluency are e.g.g. name as many animals as possible starting with letter M. I would score horribly on such a task, but I found a new way to add egg to my posts.

Even though I can appear to be verbally fluent, naming animals with names that start with M (or any letter) is really hard for me. Give me visual identifiers to look for (like hooves or horns or claws or sharp teeth or fur or scales or thick skin or what-have-you) and I can produce endless lists, though.

Also, I am fairly certain that finding new ways to add egg to your posts is much more useful.